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18 December 2015

The Quick Clay Dam #nlpoli

A very short post by James Gordon at Uncle
Gnarley contains a whole lot of information about the dam Muskrat
Falls.

Gordon is a retired professional engineer with a 60 year career that took him
to projects in 15 countries. He knows about hydro-electric dams. Six of
Gordon’s projects won awards of excellence for design.

Gordon took a look at the plan for Muskrat Falls. Here are a couple of key
points.

Nalcor plans to use the North Spur as a key part of the dam. “The hill
consists of three layers of sand, and two layers of quick clay, sloping
downstream, on a deep foundation of quick clay extending down to far below
tidewater.”

Even after Nalcor takes measures to counteract the tendency of quick clay to
liquify when it is disturbed, two layers of quick clay will remain within the
main body of the dam.

“To my knowledge, Gordon wrote, “quick clay has never before been used to
form part of a dam structure, nor has a dam been built on a quick clay
foundation.”

“Since the design of the North Spur dam is without precedent, and the
consequences of a failure are catastrophic, it becomes imperative to have the
design reviewed by an independent panel of experts – a Review Board, to provide
added assurance that the design is acceptable.”